Money Tracking

[+dunos]

While reading the forums I noticed that the US has www.wheresgeorge.com which does money tracking. I looked around for a UK version. The UK version, which I won't name, looked OK but it didn't do distance calculation. Therefore I wrote my own version of wheresgeorge.com over the last two days.

 

Disclaimer: I am still writing and testing this website and therefore the database may be emptied without warning.

 

If anyone would like to do a bit of testing and see what they can break then the address is:

 

findlizzy.co.uk

 

Good idea/bad idea?

Would you use it?

 

Also can anyone point me to any act of parliment that makes it legal/illegal to write on an english bank note? I have found many opinions on the subject and lots of websites that say it isn't legal, however none can actually state a specific act that makes it so.

 

Dan

[+Kitty Hawk]

when bank tellers load cashpoint machines they mark off bank notes in big black indelible marker every £2500. That way they can count the appx amount left by counting the black edges that are visible.

 

This suggests that writing on them isn't illegal. (all applicable disclaimers to be utilised)

[+dunos]

when bank tellers load cashpoint machines they mark off bank notes in big black indelible marker every £2500. That way they can count the appx amount left by counting the black edges that are visible.

 

This suggests that writing on them isn't illegal. (all applicable disclaimers to be utilised)

I have seen that too. Also you find people write numbers over the watermark area, I guess as some sort of running total.

 

I was wondering if I could get away with a viral marketing idea that wheresgeorge.com use of writing www.findlizzy.co.uk on each banknote that I come across.

 

Dan

[+McDeHack]

Yes what a good idea. But with the amount of notes in curculation, what would be the odds of it turning up in a cachers pocket or a registered 'find lizzy' member.

I had an Irish £20 note given to me today. If I had known this game was in action I would have kept that to start the ball rolling. But I used it to pay for my fuel tonight.

[+Lance Ambu]

viral marketing - s'pose but I guess you would need a fairly large critical mass.

 

If you are not too particular I might be able to get my hands on some Northern Bank, banknotes

 

I believe defacing coin of the realm is officially illegal, not sure if that applys to notes - which are really a cheque of sorts, promising to pay the bearer etc so although accepted as legal tender I'm not sure of their status.

 

 

PS just in case someone takes me too seriously - the Northern Bank misplaced a total of £26m recently

[+klaus23]

I had an Irish £20 note given to me today. But I used it to pay for my fuel tonight.

Really? They stopped being legal tender in March 2002

 

Just in case anybody picked up some 'funny money' on their travels you can track the notes here: www.eurobilltracker.com

[Deego]

start a few findlizzy TB's

 

post on a few other forums. word will get around.

 

good luck.

[davester]

start a few findlizzy TB's

 

post on a few other forums. word will get around.

 

good luck.

http://www.findlizzy.co.uk/profile?uid=25

 

Fancy going to the pub for an ale or two sometime?

 

[Captain Kneebone]

I had an Irish £20 note given to me today. But I used it to pay for my fuel tonight.

Really? They stopped being legal tender in March 2002

 

Just in case anybody picked up some 'funny money' on their travels you can track the notes here: www.eurobilltracker.com

..perhaps it was a Northern Irish note issued by Bank of Ireland and others...they are legal tender in UK although many think they are not..the key words on the notes are that they promise to pay the bearer in Pounds Sterling. Of course, just now, no one will touch one from the Northern Bank!!

 

CK

(originally from Belfast)

[+Naefearjustbeer]

What about Scottish notes will they work for your system. I dont often see english notes up here. When I do I usually spend them quick so they dont stay in my hands for long (well I could say that for any notes I get my hands on)

[+Naefearjustbeer]

Thought I would try but Bank Of Scotland Notes Only have 8 digit serial numbers

 

Just looking at the stats on the site how come you guys have so much notes left after Christmas!!! Me I only have 2 left until payday

Edited January 14, 2005 by Naefearjustbeer

[+dunos]

As you have found out the serial number on Scottish notes is different. Do Scottish notes have a picture of the Queen on them?

 

If you could email me a list of serial numbers for some Scottish notes then I can see about changing the website to accept them.

 

Regards,

 

Dan.

[+Naefearjustbeer]

No the scottish note doesnt have a picture of the queen. So I should of thought of that because you are not finding lizzie.

We have a picture of Mary Slessor on Clydsedale bank £10, Sir Walter Scott on The Bank Of Scotland £10, Lord Ilay on The Royal Bank £5, and thats all the money I have . Also the different banks seem to use a different format for ser nos.

The Clydsedale Bank has this format A/BC 123456.

The Royal Bank A/23 123456.

The Bank of Scotland AB123456.

 

Much to confusing I think, better if you just stick with Queen Elizabeth the 1st.

[+John Stead]

Oh dear - I think I have misunderstood this. I thought the idea was for cachers to put notes in my caches and then let me know privately what they had left and in which cache - preferably the nearest home as I was expecting to have to go out regularily to empty the caches before anyone else got their hands on the loot.

Have I got it wrong then as I have been out 5 times now and there is not a penny for me?

[+McDeHack]

Quote: ..perhaps it was a Northern Irish note issued by Bank of Ireland and others...they are legal tender in UK although many think they are not..the key words on the notes are that they promise to pay the bearer in Pounds Sterling. Of course, just now, no one will touch one from the Northern Bank!!

 

 

It did have 'Pounds Stirling'. Otherwise I would not have taken it.

[+stu_and_sarah]

So... there's £1860 in 156 notes so far... when do you think the first unsuspecting member of the public will be curious about that web address on their banknote? And whose do you think it'll be...

 

Sad, I know, but I'm checking about 5 times a day for the momentous occasion when a note gets its second log*...

 

(*unique log, that is)

 

Cheers,

 

Stu

[+dunos]

I got an email back from the Bank of England today. It is infact illegal to write on a bank note in any way. This makes me sad although it does explain why there aren't loads of marketing messages on bank notes already. It is also illegal for shops, when counting money, to mark the notes with an "80" or "50" to say how many they have in that stack. I bet very few people know this!

 

I am trying to think of other ways to market the website.

 

Dan

[+stu_and_sarah]

Of course, we'd never write on our banknotes.

 

But I'm not throwing away perfectly good ones because *cough* someone else wrote a web address on them.

 

Stu

[davester]

I got an email back from the Bank of England today. It is infact illegal to write on a bank note in any way. This makes me sad although it does explain why there aren't loads of marketing messages on bank notes already. It is also illegal for shops, when counting money, to mark the notes with an "80" or "50" to say how many they have in that stack. I bet very few people know this!

 

I am trying to think of other ways to market the website.

 

Dan

If you look at wheresgeorge and equivalent sites, it's illegal in pretty much every country. As long as you point out on your website that it's illegal and you don't endorse the activity you will be ok.

 

To actually prosecute for defacing currency they'd have to catch you doing it and you can still spend the "defaced" item. Therefore your users will have to make an informed choice.

 

Nudge nudge wink wink say no more.

[+dunos]

If you look at wheresgeorge and equivalent sites, it's illegal in pretty much every country. As long as you point out on your website that it's illegal and you don't endorse the activity you will be ok.

I have made a note in the guidelines section of the help page and may make another note about it on the track a note page in order to cover me as much as possible.

 

Dan

[+The Hokesters]

I reckon you should be alright as long as you say you do not support the defacing of notes.

 

As an ex bank employee it was always 'done' practice to write on amounts on bundles of notes and the marking of denominations for cash machines as someone also stated.

[+The Hokesters]

Dan,

 

I noticed that a lot of notes have been logged twice because people have logged them without being signed in then have signed in and logged again. Is it worth while making it members only logging?

 

Also is it worth deleting the duplicate 'guest' logs?

 

Si

[+The Hokesters]

With regard to promoting it - you could stick it in your AVATAR/Profile Title to start off with.

 

Next job is to get it into something like Computer Active or any of the newspapers - this will create the biggest interest in the smallest space of time.

 

Si

[+John & Hazel]

If I was to take part in this game

What font size is recomended for batch printing?

[+stu_and_sarah]

YAY!

 

The first proper movement has taken place! And 216 miles to boot.

 

Here it is

 

(I say proper, because for some reason, when I accidentally entered a note while not logged in, it moved half a mile when I re-entered it).

 

Ahem. Sorry. I just got excited

 

Cheers,

 

Stu

Edited March 8, 2005 by stu_and_sarah

[+The Hokesters]

Blimey! At LAST! Shame the user logging it didn't register!

[+Cryptik Souls Crew]

YAY!

 

The first proper movement has taken place! And 216 miles to boot.

 

Here it is

 

(I say proper, because for some reason, when I accidentally entered a note while not logged in, it moved half a mile when I re-entered it).

 

Ahem. Sorry. I just got excited

 

Cheers,

 

Stu

Jammon mofo! Cryptik Souls in the house y'all, and in the pub, writing on their cryptik fivers! It's all down to Mrs miknik and her Findlizzy fixation...

 

Previous to today her outlook on the idea was: "I'll keep logging notes until we get a hit on one, then I'll be happy"

 

Today it's a different story....

 

Perhaps logging into the site to log notes should be mandatory?

[+dunos]

I am sorry that I haven't noticed this thread recently. I have been quite busy at work and at home and haven't been able to read the forums as religiously as I previously did. Also the forums only sometimes tell me if there is a post on one of my subscribed threads.

 

I would like to thank you all for supporting this website. I am very impressed that it is now tracking over £7000 worth of currency. I have noted all your comments with regard to how the site works and how it perhaps should work in future. I do have a bug list and a feature list however I don't have much time at the moment to make changes.

 

DISCLAIMER: I do not condone, suggest, or perform the act of promoting the website by writing or printing or otherwise defacing a British bank note.

Edited March 8, 2005 by dunos

[+The Hokesters]

DISCLAIMER: I do not condone, suggest, or perform the act of promoting the website by writing or printing or otherwise defacing a British bank note.

Who would do a thing such as that?

 

Congrats on a great site - keep up the good work - when you can!

[+welch]

If you look at wheresgeorge and equivalent sites, it's illegal in pretty much every country. As long as you point out on your website that it's illegal and you don't endorse the activity you will be ok.

 

To actually prosecute for defacing currency they'd have to catch you doing it and you can still spend the "defaced" item. Therefore your users will have to make an informed choice.

 

Nudge nudge wink wink say no more.

The way I had understood it from WG etc, is that defacing US money is illegal if your trying to make it unusable/cannnot be reissed or using if for advertiment ("see bob's steakhouse, 3rd and main"). Since Wheresgeorge is doing neither its 'ok'. But I wouldn't want to tick off the Secret Service or they might deside its a slow day for forgery and haul you in ....

of course thats here

[+welch]

suggestion:

Also, would it be possiable to include something to try and prevent fake entries?

I know WG software knows what reserve banks were issuing notes which years and what blocks they were. So if you come up a serial thats wouldn't have been in the year / or just have too many digits doesn't go threw.

Or maybe you have that in place and the number I made up is real somewhere?

http://www.findlizzy.co.uk/note?&hash=53d2...79d7c5a5334726f

[+dunos]

The bank of england have told me:

 

Thankyou for your email about serial numbers on banknotes.

All Bank of England notes have unique serial numbers printed on them in two places - a vertical number on the left of the front of the note and a matching number horizontally positioned along the right-hand edge of the front of the note.

A cypher number appears as the first three or four alpha numeric characters on each note followed by a six numeric serial number and a record of these numbers is recorded when the notes are collected by the commercial cash handlers from the Bank of England so it is possible to validate a number in terms of confirming if a particular serial number has appeared on a note printed by the Bank of England (our ability to do this may be governed by the age of the note in question).

However, it is possible for the same serial number to appear on different denominations and even the same denominations that are of a different design so the answer to your second question is 'no'.

More information about banknotes and the serial numbers used can be found in a book that I have used in the past for reference; this is entitled 'English Paper Money' by Vincent Duggleby. The latest edition is the sixth and covers Treasury and Bank of England notes from 1694 up until 2002.

I hope this information is of help.

 

So while the serial number is unique... it isn't really unique.

 

This is what they told me about writing on notes:

 

Thank you for your enquiry.

 

It is actually an offence, under the Currency and Banknotes Act 1928 (section 12), if "any person prints, or stamps, or by any like means impresses, on any bank note, any words, letters or figures".

 

Any prosecution under the act, however, is a matter for the police and courts although, as you may imagine, we strongly disapprove of any practices that may tend to disfigure our banknotes, and attempt to discourage actions that, in any way, will effectively shorten their lives.

 

Despite any additional wording or printing that may subsequently appear on a banknote, it remains legal tender. Should people have any problem in spending defaced notes, a high street bank will normally exchange them. In any event, we would always do so if they were brought into us.

 

I hope this information is helpful.

 

Regards,

 

Dan

[+Cushag]

I left a Manx Pound Note in a Cache last Summer! Still very much legal tender on the Island. Cannot use them though in UK although Pound Sterling and worth £1.

I had heard that someone in UK went to change some in a UK bank and had to wait until they had worked out the exchage rate! Silly Billy Banker.

[+esandman]

There is a note on wikipedia about Where's George and geocaching.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocaching#Ge...here.27s_George

 

"The use of dollar bills stamped with the Where's George URL in geocaching has resulted in a conflict of interest. Where's George intends to track the natural flow of money, of which geocaching is not representative. Therefore the Where's George site currently discourages the tracking of bills used in geocaches."

http://www.wheresgeorge.com/wrapper.php?page=top10bills_dgc